Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 28: As the farmers protesting against the Centre’s three recent agriculture sector laws stayed put at the borders of Delhi amid biting cold for the 33rd day on Monday, the centre has suggested deferring the talks by a day to December 30.
In response to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of the 40 farm unions, which suggested December 29 at 11 A.M. as the date and time for the resumption of talks as requested by the government, the Centre on Monday called the protesting farmers for a meeting on December 30 at 2 P.M. at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi to discuss the three contentious farm laws.
The invite for the sixth round of talks come amidst heated political exchanges over one of the largest strike by the farmers with the ruling BJP accusing the opposition parties of “misleading” the farmers over the farm laws and the opposition parties criticizing the government for its “insensitive attitude” towards the farmers making them suffer under dipping temperature in north India.
The union agriculture ministry wrote to the farmers’ unions on Monday requesting them to meet the central government representatives at Vigyan Bhawan on December 30, at 2 pm, instead of December 29 (Tuesday) as suggested by the farmer leaders. In the letter, the government said it was committed to resolving the issues faced by farmers over the three new laws.
The three laws essentially change the way India’s farmers do business by creating free markets, as opposed to a network of decades-old, government marketplaces, allowing traders to stockpile essential commodities for future sales and laying down a national framework for contract farming.
Meanwhile, a 55-year-old Barnala-based farmer, Sukhdev Singh Gurm, died of heart attack while sitting on a dharna outside the residence of the BJP district president Yadwinder Singh. Gurm had taken position outside his residence since October 1.
Social activist Anna Hazare has threatened to go on a hunger strike if his demands on issues concerning farmers are not met by the Union government by the end of January next year, and said that it would be his “last protest.”
As more farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand made their way to Ghazipur on Delhi’s border to join the protest dharna, the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar described the decision of the Morcha to return to the negotiation table as “good step” and expressed hope that a solution would be found to the stalemate over the new farm laws through discussions.
The defence minister Rajnath Singh, meanwhile, reiterated that the
attempts to “mislead” the farmers would not succeed.
Addressing a function in Himachal Pradesh, the defence minister accused the Congress of misleading the farmers, saying that the new reforms would raise the farmers’ income. Whenever a reform is effected, it takes a few years before it starts showing positive results, Singh said in his virtual address.
But his views were opposed by the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the Singhu border camp of the farmers on Monday, second time in the month, said the farmers were protesting for their survival as the new laws would snatch their lands.
“I appeal to the Centre with folded hands to please repeal the three agri laws,” he said.
“I challenge any Union minister to have an open debate with the farmers and it will be clear how beneficial or harmful these laws are,” The AAP leader said.
